Author
Topic: Becoming a PC gamer

I'm thinking about selling my PS3 and all my PS3 games and becoming an exclusive PC gamer. I have little experience with PC games except for Diablo 2 (which is my favorite game of all time or very high on my list) and a handful of others.

However, I know when I compare vanilla versions of games to games that have been modded I always wish I could have the mods, and the console version many times looks like a skeleton version in comparison. A great point and case is the Elder Scrolls series. Adding a few mods can instantly enhance some aspects that the game falls short on. Just to name a few, mods can add variety in mobs, gear and new locations. The mods I used for Diablo 2 did the same, added mobs, weapons, crafting, abilities etc.

So, the main drawback of PC gaming I hear is that the games will surpass your PC and you may have to upgrade often. I have no experience hooking up a controller to a PC so, not sure how that goes but, itâ€™s a minor issue.

My question is to people who have both consoles (XBOX 360 or PS3 basically) and PC or exclusively game on a PC â€“ what are the pros and cons of ditching consoles completely? Is there ever a good reason to play a console version of a game? Keep in mind, I am exclusively taking about RPGs and Iâ€™m not concerned with any other genre that may suffer from crossover from PC to console or vice versa.

I would seriously advise against ditching your consoles completely, but I suppose that's more dependant on the sort of games you like to play.

Why not just buy PC versions of games you want to mod. If we use The Elder Scrolls as an example again, neither Skyrim or Oblivion have outlandish PC requirements. You don't need a super top-of-the-line computer to run them. So why not just buy them (and games like them) on PC, then hang onto your consoles for everything else? PS3 especially as many PS3 games do not get PC versions.

I enjoy modding a lot, but I would certainly lean towards preferring my consoles. They're less frustrating to use, I don't have to worry about requirements, they don't do weird things (mostly) etc. etc. Elder Scrolls, though, I always buy for PC so I can mod them. If I look through my fairly large PC library (200ish games, including downloads), less than 10 I have seriously spent time modding. A few others I've messed around with a bit, but nothing worth buying a PC version over a console version for.

tl;dr: Stick with your consoles, but have a a PC on hand for the games you want to mod, just not a super-awesome, world-exploding one.

I would seriously advise against ditching your consoles completely, but I suppose that's more dependant on the sort of games you like to play.

Thanks for the input.

Ya, I mean, I suppose I could keep my PS3 around but, I generally play console games and they leave me wanting more. Its not about graphics, its just the PC versions seem so much more flexible in general.

PC gaming is incredibly old and there's a massive corpus of games that can be played on relatively bad systems.

Could you elaberate on this a bit. Not sure I follow 100%. You mean without the right set up some games won't run right?

My main goal is just to get a PC that'll run d3 to start, and then catch up on some PC games I missed over the last few years like I missed a bunch of console games. I'm not looking for intense graphics as much as variety.

While this is true, I mean there is a large number of games that can run just fine on really, really old hardware.

Yes.

That's why my plan A is to get a decent set up thats fairly new and it should have no problem running games I wanna catch up on like Icewind Dale, the Witcher part 1, replay Morrowind and an array of others I missed out on cause I haven't been gaming or didn't have a good rig at the time.

While I slowly get those, D3 should keep me content enough. Generally when I get into a online RPG its all I play. Plus gaming time is cut thin these days to like 2-4 hours a night on weekdays and maybe anywhere from 8-12 on weekends.

I have to concur with Andrew that you shouldn't abandon your console completely, especially if you're a fan of games from Japan - many of those don't see US PC release.

What would your potential budget be for a build and how savvy would you be on building your PC? You can put together a decent quality gaming PC in the realm of $600-700, assuming you build yourself. You can get some equivalent pre-builts for probably $800 or so.

So, the main drawback of PC gaming I hear is that the games will surpass your PC and you may have to upgrade often. I have no experience hooking up a controller to a PC so, not sure how that goes but, itâ€™s a minor issue.

Oh, about this. Most PC native games have control schemes that are optimized for mouse and keyboard. You generally shouldn't need a controller and in most cases that might actually be suboptimal. The cases where a control pad might prove better are for console to PC ports (although in these cases going with the original console version might be a better option anyway), or the rare few PC games that are optimized for gamepads (Although I actually found Super Meat Boy easier with a keyboard, to be honest). Generally speaking if your main focus is on RPGs, though, the PC versions are going to be definitely more geared towards mouse + keyboard.

TES is the only series where I would really recommend ignoring the console ports completely, just because modding is so integral to the games at this point, and you'd really be missing out on a lot if skipped that. That kind of gets to the core of the issue, though. Not all ports are created equally. Console versions of the TES games miss out on the huge modding community. And apparently the PC port of that one... SaGa-esque PS3 game added a *ton* of stuff that vastly improved things. But the flipside is also true -- you might get really crappy console to PC ports that just don't work right, and as such would want to go for the console version. It's really a per-game basis, and having a variety of platforms open to you is a good thing.

Also I sort of like having consoles sitting out just for the 'furniture' aspect and I have to admit that part of the reason I got a Dreamcast was just so I could look at it and be all "Hell yeah I have a Dreamcast."

Logged

o/` I do not feel joy o/`o/` I do not dream o/`o/` I only stare at the door and smoke o/`

Many modern PC games have built-in Xbox 360 controller support, including most multi-platform games. If you don't have one already, buy a wired 360 controller and simply plug it into a USB port, Windows has native support. It won't work for older games (or obvious exceptions like RTS and point and click adventure games), but nearly every new game I've bought in the last few years has supported it. Personally I find using a mouse for long periods of time RSI-inducing, so I prefer to use a controller when possible.